Posts Tagged ‘stash’

I’ve cast on in Rowan wool – cotton from stash. Usually I knit this yarn as a thick 4ply, here it is doing good duty as a DK. I couldn’t bring myself to use a fine 4ply as the pattern suggests, but it is working out very well so far. Dark marled grey and off black. Very easy pattern to follow. I ignored the hem and knitted a few rows of garter stitch for the bottom edge.

Well, nearly… we’ve moved everything from Joolz’ flat and everything from my flat in Edinburgh, and tomorrow, Tuesday, the rest of my furniture and books arrive from Sussex. Hmmm. I’m not sure what my lovely ex-husband has put in the removal van for me … hopefully all the correct furniture and my books… he is saying that he has packed ‘some other stuff’ as well. I don’t know quite what he means, but we’ll see what arrives. I’m looking forward to the piano, the grandfather clock and the old Chesterfield sofa which will go straight off to be reupholstered.

The flat is beautiful and it is wonderful to have space again. I haven’t even been out into the garden yet, and we moved on Friday! I have taken this week off apart from today in London so I shall have time to explore. There are interesting things to get to grips with, like the burglar alarm and, in reverse, the ‘exit system’… the vendors have a lovely little downs syndrome girl who used to go walkabout in the centre of Edinburgh, so they had an exit lock fitted so she couldn’t get out unaccompanied. We have to key in the code to get out of our front door! Then there’s a rather bizarre heating and hot water system and underfloor heating in the upstairs bathroom. A quiet couple of hours with the instruction manuals will do wonders.

Drawing room and kitchen are as good as finished, so we now have somewhere to eat and collapse 🙂 It’s amazing how many jars of lentils, beans, rice and dark muscovado sugar one can accumulate when living out of two flats… somehow rather more than twice as many as in one flat. (What on earth did we need all the sugar for?) Joolz has worked out how the open fire in the drawing room is best lit and kept a) alive and b) from burning out in two minutes. There are woodburners in the kitchen and the playroom (where Joolz will do her sculpture and furniture restoration and I shall do messy fabric stuff, and we shall try some mosaic soon). I can’t wait to get the woodburners going – apparently they are dual fuel… not sure what that means exactly, I’m just used to logs, but we’ll find out. Our bedroom is awash with clothes as the wardrobes we bought won’t be delivered until February! Until then there are motley chests of drawers and my little old wardrobe donated by one of my sons. Joolz has several boxes of shoes which are still looking for a home.

Joolz has started painting the spare bedroom which was in glorious shades of bubblegum pink stripes – her mother is arriving on Wednesday for a quick visit, so that gave us a deadline! The office, which we shall be using as a clinic room for the while, is as yet untouched and full of boxes, but doesn’t need redecorating. The two other bedrooms we shall be using for work, and the decorators turn up on the 15th, so we haven’t even been in there yet.

The books are spilling out everywhere. Joolz packed 50 boxes of books for me from my flat and a few more from hers, and there are more arriving from Sussex, so we are having shelves made for the library. All the other shelves have been distributed around the flat and the vendors left two very large bookcases behind which are now in the drawing room.

The yarn boxes are in the downstairs hall hoping for a space in one of the storage cupboards, which we conveniently can’t get at because of the yarn boxes stacked neatly in front of the door 🙂 My yarn baskets are in the drawing room and in the playroom. Bliss! I really want to sit down with a cup of tea and get on with some knitting 🙂

Oh yes, and my divorce came through in the same week as we concluded missives (completed) on the flat, and all went very amicably and well. Such a relief! I need the Christmas break now.

I’m knitting an Ulmus shawl in yellow / gold and a variegated blue / green / red / gold sock yarn with the striped, slip stitch garter beginning and a wavy lace outer section in the darker variegated yarn. All in 4ply from my stash and very satisfying. Picis soon.

My still-husband’s now girlfriend is on the very point of selling her house, so she can buy me out of mine, which I still own with my still-husband, so this means he won’t have to move (bless!) and I can look for somewhere to buy myself as soon as the divorce comes through, looking like beginning of October. I can’t believe how amicable this has all been barring the first few weeks of shock, so I am profoundly grateful. I think the whole process, though, however ‘easy’ in comparison with others’, may be fuelling some of my extensive yarn buying. Just a hunch.

Sunday was the day, and I went to K1 Yarns with the intention of bagging greens. Forest, grass, lime, sage, sea, sap, stem, there they were… lace weight and 4ply, alpaca / merino / cashmere blends… bliss!!! I came away with some 4ply weight in Scottish Thistle, a blend of greens and blue/greys, some light grass green lace weight, and darker, softer, more bluey grass green lace weight, and just 400m of more sock 4ply in, er, green. To round it off I couldn’t resist burnt orange lace weight. YUM!!!

Yes… I’ve moved and I’m in my new flat. It’s looking lovely, the sitting room / kitchen is more or less done and tidy, the bedroom is festooned with clothes, as I haven’t got a wardrobe at the moment… the office is looking very efficient, but for one or two boxes of files for which I haven’t got the shelves yet… I fear another trip to Ikea is on the cards, my book stash is almost as overwhelming as my yarn stash. I brought my selection of currently favourite yarns, and the rest is still in plastic boxes at the former homestead. I’ll be moving it over bit by bit… I’ve only got a smartcar, fab for whizzing me around, not so good for large scale transportation.

It’s Pride night tonight in Brighton, and the town is full of very happy people. I met a couple out shopping who were being towed along by the most beautiful lurcher X staffy, looking VERY much like my son’s Pickle. We chatted, and the girls chatted too, and tails were wagged furiously. Jessie the lurcher X was fascinated by the array of costumes passing by, and wanted to say hello to ALL of the wearers. It’s so lovely to be able to walk out of my front door and be in town, amongst the throngs, in a few minutes. Happy bunny here 🙂

I’m moving out of the family home I’ve been in for 23 years, leaving my husband of 26 years, and starting clean new all over again. A friend remarked on the end of an era… I’m just hoping I’ll find the stamina to begin a whole new one.

So I’ve been looking for a flat in Brighton. Somewhere to live, that’s mine. To rent, of course. And the one I’ve found is right in the centre of Brighton, at City Point. Brand new development, lots of light, wide wide open pedestrianised avenues, I can walk everywhere. And it’s just down the hill from the station. And there’s a car park for my little smart car next door to it. Views are of the inner quadrant, leafy and green and spacious, or to the pedestrian boulevard the other side. It’s a total contrast to the 15th C farmhouse I am moving from, and I’m rather looking forward to it.

The only problem is, how do I house my stash in my new home and how much of it am I going to be able to move there. Hopefully all of it, but that may be optimistic. In any case it will require a total review of all yarn everywhere, an inventory even. I’m also slightly apprehensive that my girlfriend does not actually know about the sheer volume of my stash. She has heard rumours, I’ve tried to explain, she knows the extent of my library, as a sort of yardstick for comparison purposes… but I suspect she hasn’t a scoobie in her wildest imaginings about the EXTENT of my yarn stash. Oh well. I have a feeling the flat will be all books and yarn. 🙂

What AM I going to knit next? Scroll down for picis of the finished Ravens’ Wing Forest Canopy Shawl. Shall I just get on with the 772 squares shawl?

Or start some new socks? Or another shawl??? I fancy a Swallowtail. There are loads of them on Ravelry, mouthwatering! I love nearly all the socks in Interweave’s ‘Favorite Socks’ and I really want to try out the ‘Two-Yarn Resoleable Socks’ with some less durable 4ply yarns on top, and proper sock yarn for the soles, toes and heels. Imagine cashmere socks that can actually be worn?

Then again, I need something mindless and portable, as things are still very stressful at home. Maybe some simple socks from the koigu yarn I bought at K1 Yarns in Edinburgh. Must do something with yarn from stash 🙂